The critiques of the British electoral system – Biswasdip TIGELA

The electoral system is a underpins of the stable government. There are many electoral systems all over the world. Some electoral systems give a strong and stable government while some systems do not. This depends on ethnicity, community, background and geography. The United Kingdom has a long legacy of democracy, because of the way of electing system and control from the system. The British ‘first past the post'(FPTP) electoral system has provided strong government until now however there are many critiques.

According to research “there are many different electoral systems: in the 1990s, a cross-national study found 70 different systems in 27 democratic.” (Denver, 2012, p206). The variation depends on the requirement and practices of the place and the most appropriate system is used. Among the electoral system, one of the most popular systems is the ‘first past the post’ (FPTP). This is known as the single member, simple plurality (SMSP) method. This means every single constituency has a single representation in the parliament. The winner, simply they get plurality vote in own constituency. In Britain, there are many systems that are being practised, such as in the House of common, some local authorities in England and Welsh who use this FPTP system. For the election of Northern Ireland Assembly, they use Single Transferable Vote (STV) and for the Scottish Parliament, they use Additional Member System (AMS), some local authorities in England and Wales, they practice Multi-Member, simple Plurality (MMSP). Each type of electoral system has advantages and disadvantages. This essay will cover more about the first past the post system, which continues to provide a strong and stable government in the United Kingdom.

In, first past the post system, among the candidates who get the highest votes, he or she will be a winner. The number of total voter and turnout percentages do not matter in this system. Only actual ballot box voting papers are accounted. On the vote, there may be millions or few but as long as someone has a vote, and someone doesn’t have any vote, one vote could decide the winner. This first past the post (FPTP) electoral system started in Britain in 1832. It was the first referendum ever and started the democracy in the world. Most of Britain’s influenced countries have this system as well such as India, Canada and the United States of America.

There are many advantages of first past the post system. It is straightforward to understand. It is cheaper for administration; it is easy and quick to count the ballot papers, voters don’t need to express his views. This electoral system is suitable for two party’s system or if there are many political parties, it will bring down to two parties’ system. In this system, if the party became large enough to form the government then no need others party support such as participatory parliament (China parliament).

This FPTP electoral system always supports broad-church centrist policies and simultaneously discourages extremist parties. This is the traditional electoral system however it will give a clear and stable government in Britain. In this FPTP system, anyone such as those who are ethnic minority candidates or small party candidates might get a chance to win as well.

This FPTP electoral system is the most criticised system as well. There are many disadvantages; candidates can get elected with few votes, few public supports and the size of the winning criteria will not be applicable. Sometimes it is entirely against the majority norms, democracy norms. If there are 100 people and the side that gets 51 will have a minimum majority, and that is a democracy but in this FPTP the winner may win even without a minimum majority. This first past the post electoral system established the oligarchy society and the government around the globe, which is very shameful in this modern world. This system will not give an option to choose more than one candidate. This system encourages tactical voting, voters sometimes don’t like to vote for the any candidate, but there is no other choice. If candidate lost, then all vote will be wasted. If same agenda candidates are more than one, they will divide the votes so they both lose. If constituency area is small and the population number is small that will have an effect on how much weight the constituent has on policies making that affect the constituency. As a result, policies may isolate the constituency. It is an old system and not suitable to everywhere as majoritarian democracy.

In the context of the United Kingdom, there are many strong governments. Such as Tony Blair government in 1997. He had landslide victory with 418 seats over 650, that means close to a two-thirds majority. It is a historical event in British politics. Blair’s party Labour gained overall 43.2% of people vote. It is all about the power of the electoral system. When Blair became the British Prime Minister, he made several Act and Legislations which dramatically changed the British parliament and British society. During Blairs’ premiership, his government introduced 26,849 (sweetandmaxwell.co.uk, 2019)new laws, including human rights act 1998, National Minimum Wage Act 1998, Bank of England Act 1998, Tax Credits Act 1998/99/2002 and many more because Blair had a comfortable majority in the parliament. Actually, Blair is a leader of a left-wing political party of Labour, but he drove the country towards right-wing norms. If the electoral system was a different, result might be different too. That different result might make weaker and unstable government. The electoral system is the foundation of the government.

In the general election 2010, with exactly the same electoral system a coalition government with Conservative (Tory) and Liberal Democrat was formed. Tory had 306 seats, and Liberal had 57. This FPTP is very clear, easy and has been practised within British society for a long time; therefore, this system is suitable to the British people and country of the United Kingdom because until now, there is old generation in the majority, they are familiar with this FPTP and new generation obviously adapt easily. If the electoral system is complex and leaves people confused, people will not be interested in taking part in the vote.

To form the coalition government, there was an agreement between Tory leader David Cameron and Democrat leader Nick Clegg to reform the electoral system and had a long debate in the parliament. Clegg said, “UK democracy was fractured, with some votes counting more than others”. (bbc.co.uk, 2010). The existing set-up, voters, count high value in some places of the country than others, many peoples feel their votes doesn’t count therefore coalition government agreed to run the referendum for change or remain the FPTP, in the parliament voting system on 5th July 2010. Clegg launched a plan to have a referendum on the voting system. Clegg aspired to change the existing voting system first past the post (FPTP) to an alternative vote (AV) system, where voters should rank the candidates in order of their performance on the ballot paper. Voters can prefer more than one candidate with a first choice no 1, second choice no 2 and third choice no 3 or people can vote just for one. If a candidate gets more than 50%, that candidate will win, if not the second and third round will be counted.

There was the referendum on 5th May 2011 where the proposed alternative voting system was overwhelmingly rejected with 67.90% voting no, and just 32.10% yes. This result is evidence that first past the post system is easy to understand, clear and more practicable, which is making the British government strong.

To change the British electoral system, there were many efforts, such as in 1917, 1932, 1997 and obviously in 2011, before that “in 1976 the Hansard Commission on Electoral Reform, chaired by the former Conservative cabinet minister Lord Blake, recommended that a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system to be used for parliamentary elections, with three-quarters of the members being elected by FPTP and one-quarter from regional PR lists. The calculation for list seat allocations would take place at the national level…” (aceproject.org, 2019). Among the systems, MMP is the best in a modern democracy, and it was purposed 43 years ago as of 2019 by Lord Blake. Unfortunately, it was defeated by a minor majority; consequently, traditional system FPTP is still in use. However, there are six types of electoral systems in practice within the United Kingdom.(parliament.uk, 2019)

In the British election history, the Liberal party has fallen victim under this FPTP electoral system for a long time. Last decade another, the UK Independent party’s (UKIP) was severely affected as well as many smaller political parties because this traditional electoral system is in favour of major parties, Tory and Labour. In addition to the two major parties, the Scottish National Party (SNP) have also benefited because of its current number of constituents. Scotland has 59 seats out of 650. In 2015 general election SNP won 56 seats with 4.7% popularity vote, but the UKIP won 1 seat with 12.6% of the popular vote. This is a shameful result of the United Kingdom’s voting system. It is clear that UK’s electoral system does not result in a democracy where the majority rule. The system leads to Oligarchy where few people rule over the majority. Many countries in the globe who started very late to practice democracy, they have a better electoral system at this moment. However, the UK is the first country who started the election system, which started modern democracy, but the electoral system stands still. There are many critiques, complaint hence attempts to change it more than five times, but it all failed because it was in the interest of the two major politicalparties.

Tory and Labour are always scared that a third power may rise to the first or second position hence they prevented changing or modernising the electoral system. In 2011 electoral system referendum, Tory and Labour alleged that the alternative voting (AV) system was proposed to favour Liberal Democrats. On alternative voting, there should be ranking, and Conservative supporter will put first in rank conservative and second will not be labour and definitely Liberal Democrat. Labour supporter will vote in 1st rank Labour and the second rank will not be Conservative because of direct opposition; therefore, they should choose the Liberal Democrat. The second choice for both of the big parties will be Liberal Democrat. That was the reason both parties did not support to change of FPTP system to AV. Actually, Conservative and Labour parties secured their seat but failed to repair the broken democracy ethic in the United Kingdom. However, the continuity of this electoral system FPTP keeps the two parties (Tory and Labour) strong and stable, two strong parties will make stable the parliament, therefore, benefited of two parties’ control parliament will notgoing to change the electoral system of the UK.

The electoral system is the dignity of democracy; hence,the electoral commission of the UK aim is to carry out the election free and fair. The current electoral system is an indirect voting system where local MPs and Prime Minister are elected. However, people understand how their vote counts. The general public must understand the system of voting and counting, meaning how votes are converted to a seat; therefore, FPTP is the most common, cheaper, quicker and practicable. In this electoral system, Arrow’s theorem and Condorcet method which are straightforward are not applicable to FPTP. A Condorcet method is the method to elect the candidate who will get the majority of the vote but not this method is not applicable if preferences are not ranked.

There are many small political parties, ethnicity minority, small communities, indigenous communities who are oppressed by this electoral system’s used to elect the government. There are some radical and nationalist parties who are kept under control with FPTP. As mentioned above, two major parties are taking advantage of this system. There are 650 seats in the British Parliament and to form the government at least 326 seats are necessary. The leader of the largest party will be the prime minister (PM), and PM has the power. Some people believe that British PM has more power than any other prime ministers or presidents across the globe. If PM has right and balance power, then the government will be stable and powerful.

In the 2010 general election, FPTP system produced a coalitions government between Tory and Liberal, where they gained 306 seats and 57 seats respectively. Obviously, the second biggest party Labour is in the opposition, they worked together in the government. Unfortunately, in the 2015 general election, Tory gain 331 seats and Liberal gained just 8 seats; however, Liberal had the popular vote of 2,415,888. It’s very interesting that UKIP had popularity vote of 3,881,129 which is a huge number of the ballot but just gained 1 seat. Overall, democracy has failed, meaning that large numbers of voice or votes are completely wasted, which is against the democratic norms, however, the government is stable because this FPTP system covers all over of the country geographically. Prime Minister Theresa May who was already defeated than 3 times in a day, even her government is stable because she has been elected in FPTP system.

In conclusion, the British have a long legacy of democracy. Each and every member of parliament (MP) are directly elected from the local constituent and directly from the people vote. The current electoral system always favours big parties. As Conservative and Labour benefit with this system, therefore, they are protecting this system, so they can keep this system. There are problems with the system which can seem to result in oligarchy and exclude minorities. However, ‘first past the post’ (FPTP) system continues to provide a strong and stable government. The stable government will give peace and prosperous for people and country.

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